Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:<\/p>\n
\n\n\n\n\nHeller\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0McDonald\u00a0<\/em>established that the Second Amendment guarantees a personal right to bear firearms, subject to some restrictions.\u00a0 Good start.<\/p>\nAll Constitutional rights are subject to some restrictions and Americans are okay with that.\u00a0 Everybody knows you can’t yell “Fire” in a crowded theater (well, you can, but when you’re arrested for causing a riot, you can’t use the First Amendment as your defense).\u00a0\u00a0 Some restrictions are so obviously sensible nobody argues them.\u00a0 But the devil being in the details, we need to know how carefully the restrictions are drawn.\u00a0 The Constitution doesn’t say so the Supreme Court has interpreted it for us.<\/p>\n
Restrictions on Fundamental Rights (such as First Amendment speech and religion) must hold up under “strict scrutiny” – there must be a compelling government interest, which the restriction is narrowly tailored to achieve, and for which no less restrictive alternative exists.\u00a0 Restrictions on Sex issues (e.g. 14th Amendment sex discrimination)\u00a0 must hold up under “intermediate scrutiny” – there must be an important government interest to which the restriction is substantially related. Restrictions on lesser matters (Fifth Amendment “taking” by zoning ordinance, for example) must have a “rational basis”\u00a0 – the restriction must be rationally related to a legitimate government interest.<\/p>\n